'Something's bothering her. She's drinking too much,’ Marika proffered. 'She knows how my father feels about that. She's usually more careful.’
Carlo crossed the room with a brilliant smile that tore at Jessica's heartstrings. 'What are you doing over here? Come on... I want you to meet my friends.'
The afternoon wore on and the party became more riotous. Jessica didn't know what time it was when she overheard Marika say something to Carlo in Greek. She caught Sunny's name and Carlo's sudden tension. His hard jawline squared.
Where was Sunny? It had been some time since Jessica had last seen her. A split-second later, Carlo strode off.
'Where's he going?' she asked his sister.
Marika compressed her lips. ‘I asked him to find Sunny. She's drunk and when she's drunk, she can be... indiscreet,' she selected the word curtly.
Jessica hesitated only a moment before setting off in pursuit. She saw Carlo at the top of the stairs and hurried
after him. He clearly knew exactly where he was going and she almost lost him down one corridor, catching up round a corner just in time to see him throw wide a door.
Before she saw for herself the scene that had met his eyes, she heard him explode into guttural Greek. Sunny was half out of her dress on a bed and a highly embarrassed young man was spluttering fervent apologies and struggling to get back into his jacket beside the bed. Carlo stood there with clenched fists, a dark flush highlighting his blazing eyes.
'You don't want me,' Sunny sluned, fumbling clumsily to right her dress. 'Why should you care?'
As the young man took advantage of Carlo's stasis to flee, Jessica was almost knocked flying. Her gasp as she grabbed at the door-handle to steady herself turned both Carlo and Sunny's heads.
Sunny gave an inebriated giggle. 'If it isn't the blushing bride.. .come on, why don't you? It's open house!'
Carlo was rigid, his dark, strong face utterly impassive. 'Go back downstairs, Jessica.'
'She's not that sensitive.' Sunny laughed again. 'I know all about her, Carlo. I found the file in Lukas's desk. Her mother was a nymphomaniac and her daddy's a thief. You weren't too choosy, were you?'
'Shut up!' Carlo gritted furiously as every scrap of colour drained from Jessica's shattered face.
‘And her first husband was gay,' Sunny giggled, unconcerned. 'You must be a real shock to the old system after an experience like that!'
Carlo stilled. His fiercely narrowed gaze slewed at speed back to Jessica and simply stayed there. 'Gay?' he practically whispered in disbelief.
Jessica unfroze and whirled out of the room. She was outraged and devastated at one and the same time. Lukas PhiUppides must have had her investigated. Where else could Sunny have obtained such information? All along
Lukas had known about her background. She felt invaded and violated, horrified that such information should have fallen into Sunny's grasping hands, cheap fodder for her spite.
Carlo caught her back on the landing before she could head for the sanctuary of their bedroom. A far from gentle hand closed round her forearm. 'Pull yourself together!' he warned her with barely subdued ferocity.
He wasn't laughing. He looked furious, rage threatening to seethe up through the cracks. Jessica felt torn in two. Last night, she had wanted to tell Carlo the story of her marriage and he had denied her the opportunity. She was humiliated by the manner in which Sunny had deprived her of that right.
Carlo's hands curved powerfully into her shoulders. His dark face pale and set. 'Is it true?' he demanded.
'None of your blasted business!' she gasped. 'Why don't you go ask Sunny for the same sleazy invasion of my life and read it for yourself?’
'I might just do that.' Carlo released her with pronounced reluctance and bit out, cDio... if it is true, I don't think I'll be responsible for my actions!'
He made her rejoin the party, his arm an iron vice clamped to her rigid spine. He held her so close she could feel the tremors of repressed rage still shuddering through him. 'Smile,' he instructed harshly.
Later she remembered nothing of the last couple of hours of the wedding. Did she smile? She could not understand why Carlo should be so angry. Surely the right to anger was hers alone? It was her privacy which had been crudely and shockingly invaded. A nymphomaniac, Sunny had called her mother. That more than anything else made Jessica feel physically sick with humiliation.
'To think I thought the impossibility of a honeymoon unfortunate,' Carlo drawled in a murderously quiet tone
as he flung off his jacket and tie. 'In these circumstances, it would have been grotesque!'
Jessica was stationed by the window, her slender back defensively turned to him.
'You're like Pandora's box.. .what else don't I know?' Carlo enquired with flat emphasis.